WITH CHRIST IN SERVICE AND IN THE PRESENT TRUTH
Mark 1: 17, 18, 21, 22, 36-38; 4: 26-29
I have read these scriptures, having in mind exercises that are current amongst us, not only in this city hut in other places as well, having reference both to service in the gospel and service generally, as to how it is to be carried on, and also having in mind the evidence there is that there is a certain sifting, or perhaps we should say, refining process going on among the saints at the present time in various things that are happening. We need to take account of these matters, because on the one hand Satan is always seeking in one way or another to introduce among the saints principles that are contrary to the truth and are corrupting in their result, and disrupting too, while on the other hand the Lord is always working, and the Spirit is operating, with a view to a perfect end being reached, according to God’s thoughts. If we have sensational gospel work, claiming remarkable results, forced on our attention, we do well to look at these matters in the light of Scripture, so that we may have God’s mind about them and be confirmed in the truth.
Now the gospel of Mark is peculiarly, as we know, the servant’s gospel, the Lord being presented as the model Servant, the great Servant, and this chapter l is remarkable for the fulness that enters into it. Verses 21 to 38 give us, we might say, a day of twenty-four hours, and a very full day it was. Now before that, it says the Lord, in walking by the sea of Galilee, “saw Simon, and Andrew, Simon’s brother, casting out a net in the sea, for they were fishers”. The Lord had in mind to make them fishers of men. That, of course, is what gospel activity has in view, that men should be secured for God, and every saint having the Holy Spirit will in greater or less degree be marked by evangelical desires, the desire that men should be secured for the pleasure and service of God. But it is a question of how to become fishers of men, how to become qualified for the work of securing men for God, and the Lord introduces this idea at the very outset. He says “Come after me, and I will make you become fishers of men”. That is to say, that the manner of service, the methods of service, by means of which men are to be secured, are to be learned from Christ. “Come after me”, He says, “and I will make you become fishers of men”, and so they do, they follow Him, and we are to follow Him, especially in this gospel. I have only read one or two selected passages, but as we go through the gospel we shall be impressed with the way in which the Lord carried on His service In verse 22 we find that they were astonished at His doctrine, “for he taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes”. That is, there was a marked difference that attracted everybody, a marked difference between the teaching of the Lord and the authority that went with it, and that which was current around them. It was not at all according to natural ideas, nor according to anything that they were used to, or that would commend itself to the natural man. “He taught them as having authority”, it says, “and not as the scribes”. Then later on we find that in the morning, long before day, He “went out and went away into a desert place, and there prayed. And Simon and those with him went after him; and having found him, they say to him, All seek thee”. That is, He was attracting attention. He was not seeking popularity; He was not seeking crowds, but all sought Him, and He says, “Let us go elsewhere”. A remarkable thing! “Let us go elsewhere”. At the very moment when they bring the news to the Lord that all were seeking Him, He says, “Let us go elsewhere”. That is, He would deliberately avoid anything that would bring Him into public popularity, or public notice. He says, “Let us go elsewhere into the neighbouring country towns, that I may preach there also, for for this purpose am I come forth”. Further down in that same chapter we find that He says to the leper whom He had cleansed, “See thou say nothing to any one, but go, show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing what Moses ordained, for a testimony to them”. “See thou say nothing to anyone”: the Lord is charging him with that, not to make it known, not to move in such a way as to attract attention or court popularity. It says, “But he, having gone forth, began to proclaim it much, and to spread the matter abroad, so that he could no longer enter openly into the city”. That is the man through disregarding the Lord’s directions, actually hindered the work of God. He began to spread the matter, but Jesus went to desert places. Desert places are not popular to the natural man, but they followed Him, and the withdrawal of the Lord to desert places left the way open for the work of God to show itself in those in whom He was working, so it says, “They came to him from every side”.
In chapter 4 the Lord says, “Thus is the kingdom of God”. He is calling attention to the manner of the work of God. “Thus is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast the seed upon the earth, and should sleep and rise up night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he does not know how”. Now that is the true character of the work of God, that it is of God. God is pleased to use men to cast the seed upon the earth, but men cannot make it sprout and grow. It is God who does that. No effort on man’s part can make it sprout and grow. The great thing to do is to cast the seed upon the earth. But it says he “should sleep, and rise up night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he does not know how”. That is to be left with God. God knows the secret. It is the power of God, who makes the seed sprout and grow. The man does not know how. He simply casts the seed on the earth. Then the Lord goes on to speak of the character of the work of God. “The earth bears fruit of itself, first the blade, then an ear, then full corn in the ear”. That is, the Lord is looking in all this work for a full result. “First the blade”, suggestive of life, freshness of life; love for Christ, love for the saints, love for the truth are evidences of life. “First the blade, then an ear”: that brings in the form that the result in persons is to take. It involves teaching, the teaching of the truth of the assembly, because that is in mind in all gospel testimony. What is in mind at the present time is that the assembly should come into view. There is just one pattern before the mind of God, so there is “first the blade, then an ear, then the full corn in the ear”. All this involves ministry following on the life coming into evidence. It involves patient ministry of the truth of the assembly, and ministry of Christ, so that not only is there the truth of the assembly but it is filled out in a special way with that which is of Christ, the full corn in the ear, nothing less than that is in the mind of God. The assembly is in the mind of the Lord, the fulness of the heavenly Man, to be secured as the final result of the initial gospel service. Then it says, “But when the fruit is produced, immediately he sends the sickle, for the harvest is come”. That is, God is looking for a full result, and we are to look for the full result too. I did not read what follows, but the Lord immediately brings in another similitude of the kingdom of God, and it is the public view of things. It is not now the work of God, it is the public view. It starts small, as the work of God does, but then men take it on and though the mustard seed is less than all seeds which are upon the earth, when it has been sown it mounts up and becomes greater than all herbs, and produces great branches, so that the birds of heaven can roost under its shadow. That is, it is what the work becomes in the hands of men. It becomes great; it has the outward appearance of being great, and everybody can take part in it, the birds of heaven roost in its branches. There is no suggestion of separating light from darkness, as God did from the beginning. The great principle of separation is a fundamental principle with God. Here the birds of heaven, whatever their character may be, go to roost under the branches of this great mustard tree. That is what things become publicly in the hands of men, and when we see any. thing that is pretentious and that attracts attention we may rest assured that it is of this character of the mustard tree, and in no sense of the true character of the work of God.
In the succeeding instance the Lord goes over the sea: “He says to them, Let us go over to the other side; and having sent away the crowd, they take him with them, as he was, in the ship. But other ships also were with him”, v 35, 36. There are other ships also going along with the Lord besides the ship that the Lord is in personally. You have to recognise that. In the confused state of things in Christendom there are those who are having some part in some degree in the testimony, but there is only one ship in which the Lord is personally, and all the attack of the enemy is to sink that ship. Thank God, there is no possibility of sinking it!
I read the passages in Luke because they link on, the first with what we have been speaking of, and the second with a matter that is exercising the brethren at the present time. In Luke 9: 49, 50, we find what we have already seen in relation to the little ships, that there was someone who was not with Jesus and His disciples, and yet was serving and operating in His Name, and proving the power of His Name. John says that he saw one casting out demons in Christ’s Name, “and we forbad him, because he follows not with us”. The Lord says, “Forbid him not”. There is no need to forbid him. He that is not against us is for us. If he is preaching Christ, well and good. He is not against us. But the Lord simply said, “Forbid him not, for he that is not against you is for you”. He did not say, ‘Join with him in his activities’. That should be some help for us, as to how we should regard activities in the Christian world, in the gospel, that are being carried on in a way that is not consistent with the truth, or in keeping with the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us always bear in mind the moral import of the cross. The first man has been judged and ended in the cross, and if that man is introduced in the methods used in service in the Lord’s Name, that is not consistent with the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; it is to be looked at in that light.
In chapter 11 the Lord brings in in verse 23 what may seem, on the surface, contrary to what we have read in chapter 9. He says, “He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters”. Now that is a most important principle and bears upon us specially in relation to any truth that the Spirit of God is emphasising at the moment. Indeed, it is remarkable that it comes in a passage in which the point at issue was the Spirit of God and the activities of the Spirit of God, and the Lord says here, “He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters”. That is an issue that is really arising in several places in regard to the current ministry of the Spirit: there is an effort on the part of some to be not with the Lord, not with the Spirit, not with the truth, and yet not exactly, they would say, opposing it. But here the Lord says, “He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters”. That is to say, if the Spirit of God is bringing forward some feature of the truth and emphasising it, we are every one of us responsible to see that we are thoroughly with it; if we desire to be with it the Lord will help us. The Lord says “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you”, Luke 11: 9. These are basic promises. If we have the desire to understand the truth and follow it, we should ask and we shall have our desires answered. If we are lethargic about it, or in any sense careless or indifferent, we may find ourselves in the position that we are not with the truth, with the Spirit, and here the Lord says, “He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters”. That is, there is no neutrality. There can be no neutrality in relation to the truth. The great effort of the enemy is to introduce the principle of neutrality. That is a false principle. If we are not with the truth we are against it. “He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters”.
I read the passage in Malachi because I believe it is what is going on at the present time in principle. In this closing prophet, Jehovah says, “I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek will suddenly come to his temple”. The Lord sometimes moves suddenly. He will suddenly come to his temple. It became a test to those who were outwardly seeking the Lord. He says, “The Lord whom ye seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the Angel of the covenant, whom ye delight in”: their outward appearance, their profession, was that they were seeking the Lord and delighting in the covenant, but then the Lord moved suddenly and they found it was a test to them. “Behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts”. Now this is something very exercising for us all to face. I may take the ground of seeking the Lord and delighting in His covenant, going on with the service and so on, but something may suddenly arise in the ways of God that tests me as to whether I really am with the Spirit in what He is bringing forward at the moment, because the service of God, to be acceptable to God, must be characterised by the features of the truth that the Spirit is emphasising at the moment. It is important to observe that. “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies”. So this sudden movement of the Lord became a test. “Who shall endure the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ lye”. A refiner’s fire is very discriminating. Not one bit of what is really gold or silver is lost. It only operates against what is dross. It is a comfort to recognise that the refining process which the Lord is carrying on—and it is a deliberate process—is a process in which, as we are subject to it, nothing whatever of moral value will be lost; it will stand out in its distinctiveness as completely set apart from what is mere dross. So it says, “He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he will purify the children of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver”. I believe we are being tested as to whether we are characteristically children of Levi. The Levites were taken instead of the first-born of Israel. They recognised the responsibility to allow the claims of God to have first place. That is, there were the firstborn, and He claimed the firstborn, but the Levites were given in place of the firstborn. They represent the answer to the claim which the love of God and of Christ makes to have the first place with His people, and the Levites were joined (the name means “joined”) to Aaron and his sons. They have in mind, thus, that what is priestly in consideration for God and the service of God is to be promoted. It may be that we are all being tested, whether we are really Levites, really joined to the Lord and His interests, whether they have first place with us. It is Levites that He is purifying. “He will purify the children of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah an oblation in righteousness. Then shall the oblation of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in former years”. That is the prospect before us as we speak of the Lord’s ways in refining and purifying. It is a question of an oblation that is acceptable to God coming forth from His people, as in the former days, as though the Lord would say, There is the possibility of arriving, at the end, at something that is morally equal to what was ever realised at Jerusalem, Antioch, or Ephesus, or at any place where the work of God shone out in its glory. His present service of purifying and refining has in view that there should be an oblation for Jehovah which is presented to Him as in the days of old, and as in former years.
Let us be concerned to be with the Lord in all these exercises that are being raised, not murmuring at the refining or what is involved in it, but recognising that in any process of that character the Lord has in mind to set us free from everything that hinders what is purely of God in us, what corresponds with the gold and silver, coming into view for the pleasure of God.
LONDON
4th May 1954
From Words of Grace and Comfort
THE WORK OF GOD
I have in mind that the falling asleep of a saint provides an occasion for some sober appraisal on the part of the brethren of the work of God in him, so that we can thank God for it, and also gives occasion to take account of the world beyond death, in view of which that work of God has been carried on. The Lord is spoken of in Colossians 1: 18 as “the beginning, firstborn from among the dead”. Everything for God begins with Christ out of death, so that the world that lies beyond death is definitely in view now that Christ is risen from among the dead, and we can take account of the work of God in one another as that which has been carried on, and now in one and another perfected, in view of that world. It is very stimulating and encouraging to us to realise that for faith that world is already in view, and indeed we well know that any moment may see us all introduced into it, in conditions of glory suited to what God has wrought in our souls.
Well now, the first scripture we have looked at, referring to Abraham, aptly describes what our brother has been, for he was one who commanded his children and his household after him. The evidence of it is among us, and we thank God for it. All those who have had families know that this is not a thing done in a moment; it involves steady pursuit of the truth day by day in the fear of God, and some measure of moral power to enforce it upon the children and the household, and that is one feature that has been seen with our beloved brother. No doubt our dear sister, his late wife, had her part in it, but the scripture here is referring to the father, the responsible head, and we can take account with thankfulness of this feature of our brother’s life, that he commanded his children and his household after him, that “ they shall keep the way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice”. God knew him on that account; he was a true son of Abraham, and we can rejoice in it because, as one has said, the fruits of it are present with us, not only to one generation, but to a second generation. That is not only a matter of personal interest, but it is of great importance to all those who love the testimony, for it is by this means largely that succeeding generations are secured, as we read in Ecclesiastes, “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh”, chap 1: 4. And while it is, of course, the work of God that secures the coming generation, yet in many cases it is by means of the exercise and faithfulness of the parents. Our beloved brother has had his part in this, and we can take account of it and rejoice in it greatly before the Lord.
Then there is also what has marked him, steady addiction to the work, as it is said, “joined in the work and labouring”. That certainly aptly describes what our brother has been over many years, “joined in the work”, his whole soul in it, a true Levite. Levi means “joined”, and it was characteristic of our brother that the work of the Lord was an outstanding interest with him. To the utmost of his ability, and to the end of his days, he was labouring in relation to it. That also is something that we can rejoice in. We read in chapter 3 of this epistle that “the work of each shall be made manifest what it is”—a very sobering consideration for any who have part in the work of the Lord. “The day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire shall try the work of each what it is”, whether it is of a character that abides or whether of a character that is going to be burnt up. We can rest assured from testimony received that his work will abide as having real value, and that the fruit of it is known in the souls of the brethren. We can rejoice in this in regard of our brother that he was one joined in the work and labouring, whose labour has not been in vain. The day shall declare it, and he will not be without his reward.
But then along with the work of God there is always that which has to be displaced with us all. We all know that. We come, at the end of Jacob’s history, to this threshing floor. Jacob is one who represents in a remarkable way the work of God in the believer, and it is a remarkable thing that he finishes his course at a threshing floor. That is what death is for every one of those in whom God is working; it is the final point at which the work of God is separated for ever from all that is extraneous to it. Thank God, all that is not of God’s work, all that is not of Christ, has already been judged in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has devoted Himself to us with that in view, and the Spirit has laboured and is labouring with us who are living with this in view all the time, constantly bringing us more and more in our minds and hearts into accord with death. But when death itself comes in its actuality, that is final, and what a deliverance it is! How we can rejoice in it! With every one of us from time to time the work of God may be momentarily obscured by that which is natural, but the work of God remains and, when we come to the final matter of death, that is the final severance for ever, a leaving aside for ever. What a matter of thankfulness it is! Now every heart can rejoice in it! God uses death to further His own ends. It is even said that death is ours. And so in the light of that we can rejoice that every trace of what is alien to the work of God is now out of sight for ever, never to be seen again, and the glory of the work of God in its preciousness will stand out. The features of it have been seen and we gladly recognise that, but now we recognise that nothing else but the work of God in its glory will be seen henceforth in regard of our brother. We can rejoice in that.
I would just add one thing more, which I believe many are feeling at the present time. It seems to be in God’s way, in the ways of the Lord with His people, that many are allowed to come to a point when the effects of old age, even extending to what is mental, have to be experienced, and it is a humiliating experience. On the one hand God would have us feel what a body of humiliation is, and not only that it is a body of humiliation, but to understand why it is a body of humiliation, to understand how serious are the fruits of sin, that a creature so exalted as man is can become as he does become sometimes in the actual experience of one and another. Not that that affects the work of God, but we are allowed to experience it in order to come into sympathy with the heart of God in regard of what sin is, how terrible it is. As saints in their own personal experience are made to feel what it is to have a body of humiliation and realise what the fruits of sin are, it just reminds us that the Lord Jesus Himself, who knew no sin, has been made sin for us. He has actually identified Himself in the most absolute way, sin apart, with that awful thing sin, in order that by the sacrifice of Himself it might for ever be removed.
There is another thing. The Holy Spirit too has identified Himself in grace with the frail weak condition of the body of believers. Whatever they may come to in frailty and weakness as the fruit of sin, the Holy Spirit in grace remains with them in those conditions, feeling them doubtless with divine sensibilities, but remaining faithfully with us right to the end. Thus we are brought into accord with Christ and with the Holy Spirit; we are brought into accord with God Himself in His feelings as to what sin is.
But then, as we see, there is a point where it is all left behind. Thank God for this. They come to this threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan. Nothing of frailty, nothing of the fruits of sin can go over Jordan; it is all left behind at Jordan, and it says, “they lamented with a great and very grievous lamentation”. They would not lament over Jacob’s crookedness; they would lament over the work of God, that is what they would remember. The grievous lamentation would mean that they had a great appreciation of what God had wrought in Jacob, and that is what we can do. We have a real appreciation of what God has wrought in our beloved brother. And so it is said, “his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah which Abraham had bought along with the field, for a possession of a sepulchre, of Ephron the Hittite, opposite to Mamre”. That is what we are just about to do in regard of the body of our brother; we are about to bury him, we might say, in the cave of Machpelah, this wonderful burying place which the Lord has secured through His precious death. It is the position of those that sleep in Christ. We love to think of those that sleep through Jesus. Think of the apostle Paul, and of Peter and John, think of the worthies who laid down their lives for the truth in the middle ages, think of those who are nearer, Mr Darby, and many others who succeeded him, and others less well known but equally valued; they are all there, as Jacob said just before he died, “there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah”, Gen 49: 31. He goes over the names of those who lay there, and our brother is just about to be added. We are just about to place him there in the sense that the Lord has absolute rights over all those that are His, and they will soon have their part in the day of glory of which Christ Himself is the beginning.
LONDON
1st June 1954
At a burial meeting
From Words of Grace and Comfort
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